Britain’s Mr Country Music

            TONY GOODACRE

                        Tony's appearances include:
                      The Grand Ole Opry, Nashville
                   Wheeling Jamboree, West Virginia.
                      Tamworth Festival, Australia.
                     Empire Pool, Wembley, London.
                           Grapevine Opry, Texas.
                              London Palladium.
        Floralia Festival, Holland. (16 annual appearances)
              and many more major shows throughout
       Europe, U.S.A., Australia, New Zealand and the U.K.
 
     Tony Goodacre’s first professional engagement singing country music was in September 1956, whilst still serving in the Royal Air Force at Bawdsey in Suffolk.  It was when singing with his skiffle group, The Tigers, earlier that year in the Sergeants’ Mess at the nearby American Base at Woodbridge, that the servicemen there told him that many of the songs he was singing were country.

     They then lent the group some recordings by people like Hank Snow, Hank Williams and Lefty Frizzell, and within a few weeks, many classic country music songs were added to the repertoire.  Leaving the R.A.F. in 1959, Tony soon became involved in singing country music in the pubs and clubs in his native West Yorkshire around Leeds, whist holding down daytime jobs in sales and sales management.

     Having first met Arthur Layfield in 1962, a member of the Harrogate based Bertini Dance Band who shared Tony’s love of country music, they teamed up together in 1965 initially as a duo and later forming a four piece band Goodacre Country.

     At this time, country music clubs and venues began to open up all over Britain, and it wasn’t long before Tony began touring nationwide, either working solo, with Arthur as a duo, or with his trio or band.  In the 1970's he toured the U.S.A. on several occasions, and then between 1981 and 2007 made several singing tours throughout Europe, Australia and New Zealand.  Over the years, Tony has probably made more appearances singing country music than any other British country artiste, regularly clocking up between 250 and 350 bookings every year.

     At the end of 2009, he decided to retire from full time touring.  In 2013 he was diagnosed with Myeloma, (cancer of the bone marrow, a non curable but treatable disease).  An intesnsive programme of treatment followed, and the side effects, which included taking thalidomide tablets, left him with several spells of hospital treatment in 2014.  Since then the cancer has been in remission, but the permanent side effects have left him with a few mobility problems, although he is able to walk quite well with a stick. He has limited feeling in his feet or fingertips, which means he can no longer play his guitar.  So for about the first time in his career, he is using backing tracks for the gospel shows he does helping Paul Wheater with his Gospel Music Convention inm whitby.

     Literally tens of thousands of Tony’s recordings have been sold at his personal appearances all over the world.  Sadly, only on rare occasions have his albums been stocked in the shops.  After his retirement, it will become increasingly difficult to find Tony’s recordings.  For that reason, you will find full details of all the CDs, DVDs and other product currently available by clicking on the CD's and DVDs page on this website.   In recent years he has been releasing compilation albums and making them available to down load or stream through CDbaby.com or many more partner compaies like iTunes, Amazon MP3, Apple Music and Spotify.  There are currently nearly 300 different recorded songs available.  Go on to the 'LINKS' page of this website for details and listen to audio clips of every song.

     So don’t miss the opportunity of adding to your collection of CD’s  and DVD’s recorded by the winner of the first ever Lifetime Achievement Award in British Country Music, the man who spent over 52 years singing country music around the world,  Britain’s Mr Country Music himself, Tony Goodacre.